Jonah

Chapter 5 - The
Sign of Jonah

Jesus said that "an evil
and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and a sign will
not be given it, except the sign of Jonah" (Matthew 16:4).
Paul said that, "for indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks
search for wisdom" (I Corinthians 1:22). This implies that
the "sign of Jonah" was not meant for the Gentiles
but for the Jews. The Greeks were only interested in something
they could reason out and prove. A sign is not something that
can satisfactorily be evaluated with reason and proved and thus
would not have been of any interest to the Greek mind. This in
no way makes the Greek approach superior to the Jewish. The Greek
mind set is, in fact, incapable of discovering or knowing God's
will. Paul confirmed this when he stated that God could not be
known by reason (I Corinthians 2:21a). Since God is sovereign
He does not have to subject Himself to analytical examination
as one could do to a rock or animal specimen. Hence, He would
not necessarily be discoverable by us and it would be completely
up to Him to reveal Himself to us. The Hebrews understood this
much about God and the inadequacy of the Greek approach. But
the Jews, like all fallen men, tend towards unspiritual ways
to seek God. And the seeking of signs was one of those ways,
for Jesus specified that "an evil and adulterous generation
seeks after a sign." Consequently there is a problem with
the sign of Jonah. It is given to those who are unable to discern
it as a sign. The very character of a person that requires a
sign robs them of the ability to recognize it when it appears.
Jesus stated as much when He quoted Isaiah 6:9-10 to explain
why he taught in parables:

13"Therefore
I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not
see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.
14> In their case the prophecy of Isaiah
is being fulfilled, which says, 'You will keep on hearing, but
will not understand; you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive;
15 for the heart of this people has become
dull, with their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed
their eyes, otherwise they would see with their eyes, hear with
their ears, and understand with their heart and return, and I
would heal them'" (Matthew 13:13-15).

So what is this that is a sign
only to those unable to discern it as a sign? On one level this
seems to be a reference to the death and resurrection of Christ.
For just as Jonah was "raised" by the Gentile sailors,
cast into the sea, and then three days later restored to the
world of the living so was Christ. Jesus was raised up on the
cross by the Romans, buried for three days, and then resurrected.
But just as Jonah's release from the fish was only a preparation
for what was really the central theme of the book of Jonah so
was the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ the foundation
upon which the actual sign of Jonah rests. It is a sign that
requires no wrangling over the historical accuracy of the resurrection
event for this sign has stood before all of Israel from generation
to generation since the death and resurrection of the Messiah.
If we take Jonah as a type for Israel, and the sailors and the
men of Nineveh as representatives for the Gentiles, then the
sign becomes God bringing the Gentiles to repentance and revealing
Himself to them while Israel unhappily watches God work independently
of Israel. The Gentiles come to know Yahweh, the God of Israel,
who they were not seeking before. The sign of Jonah can also
be identified as the "mystery of the Church." The mystery
is that God has drawn out a people for Himself, independent of
Israel and the Law, to be grafted into His family. Paul wrote
of this mystery in his letter to the Ephesians:

4 "By
referring to this [the mystery revealed to Paul], when you read
you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which
in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as
it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in
the Spirit; 6 to be specific, that the Gentiles are
fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers
of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel" (Ephesians
3:4-6).

In the same letter Paul later
wrote concerning the relationship of husbands and wives; he related
that discussion to a higher level when he said, "This mystery
is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the
church" (Ephesians 5:32). Paul also referred to this mystery
in Romans:

23
And they [Israel] also, if they do not continue in their unbelief,
will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. 24
For if you [Gentiles] were cut off from what is by nature a wild
olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated
olive tree, how much more will these who are the natural branches
[Israel] be grafted into their own olive tree? 25
For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery
- so that you will not be wise in your own estimation - that
a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness
of the Gentiles has come in; 26 and so all Israel will be saved; just
as it is written, "the Deliverer will come from Zion, He
will remove ungodliness from Jacob. 27
this is My covenant with
them, when I take away their sins" (Romans 11:23-27).

Here Paul also refers to the
flip side of the sign of Jonah; that is, Israel and their response
to God's work among the Gentiles. But in all of the Hebrew Scriptures
only in Jonah is the mystery of the Gentile Church so well described.
Certainly there are other places which suggest the Church. For
example, when Abraham sent his servant to obtain a wife for Isaac,
Rebekah became a type for the Church (Genesis 24). We see the
picture of God the Father sending His Holy Spirit into the world
to obtain a bride for His Son. There was also the story of Ruth,
the non-Jew, who accepted the God of Israel and was grafted into
the people of God through Boaz. There, Ruth represents the Church
and Boaz, Christ. Most of the other depictions of the Church
are even less distinct, such as Enoch as a type for the raptured
Church. The Prophets, as well, hint at the Church. They spoke
of how the nations would come to Zion to worship the Lord. The
significance of this is that they were still referred to as non-Jews
when they come to know the Lord and worship Him; in Jewish eyes,
to properly know and worship the Lord one must first become a
Jew. To refer to the nations as joining with the Lord and coming
to Zion to worship Him - yet remaining distinctly non-Jewish
- greatly betokens the Gentile Church. But Jonah goes beyond
all other prophetic intimations and tells us much more clearly
that repentance and salvation will come to all of the peoples
of the earth independent of Jewish tradition or adherence to
the Mosaic Law:

"The Lord has bared His
holy arm in the sight of all the nations, that all the ends of
the earth may see the salvation of our God" (Isaiah 52:10).

47
"For so the Lord has commanded us, 'I have placed you as
a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the
end of the earth.'" 48 When the Gentiles heard this, they began
rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as
had been appointed to eternal life believed (Acts 13:47-48).